The club beat University in the weekend and has a nine-point buffer at the top of the competition standings.
There are still two more round-robin games, a semifinal and a final to play before Eastern can contemplate playing in a promotion-relegation game.
Should Eastern win, it would be within its rights to challenge but the question is would it?
Eastern president Jeff Grubb, well, kicked for touch, when asked if the club has those aspirations.
"It is a hot topic at the moment,'' Grubb said.
"I'm not really allowed to say anything because we are just taking it week by week at the moment and we haven't really discussed it.
"We've got to win the final first and that is our main goal.''
The premier 2 final is on August 13 - three weeks after the premier grade final and a month after the bottom-placed premier side has been decided.
Pirates and Zingari-Richmond will play off for that dubious honour this weekend and the loser would have to keep its squad together for a possible promotion-relegation match on August 20.
Otago Rugby Football Union community rugby manager Richard Perkins said the metropolitan rugby council had not received any indication from Eastern as to whether it would a lodge a challenge.
Ideally, Eastern would signal its intention "sooner rather than later'', Perkins said.
"If they could [lodge a challenge] prior to the final in anticipation of winning would probably be the best way. Then the metropolitan rugby council could get on with their planning.''
There are other criteria to consider. The challenging club must be able to show it is able to support a premier team by fielding either another two senior teams or a senior team and a colts team.
Eastern has a second senior team but no colts team, so falls short on that criterion.
Eastern had a side in the top grade in 1992 through to the early 2000s before it dropped out after a failed bid to field a combined side with the Dunedin club.
Taieri forced its way back into the premier grade when it beat University B in a promotion-relegation match in 2008. The Eels went on to win the title in 2011, 2012 and 2014.
